Arya News - Volodymyr Zelensky is attempting to build European support for a new Ukraine peace deal, with Donald Trump’s plan on the verge of collapse.
Volodymyr Zelensky is attempting to build European support for a new Ukraine peace deal, with Donald Trump’s plan on the verge of collapse.
The Ukrainian president met Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo, the Pontiff’s hilltop summer residence on Tuesday. He will later meet Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, before sharing his revised peace plan with the US.
Mr Zelensky’s Italian pit-stop comes after he held an emergency summit at Downing Street on Monday with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, to hash out his counter-proposal.
Mr Trump’s plan was seen as widely favourable to Russia and required Mr Zelensky to cede vast swathes of territory to Russia, which remains a red line for the Ukrainian leader.
Volodymyr Zelensky met Pope Leo XIV in Italy on Tuesday morning as he developed a peace plan - Andrew Medichini/AP
The US president is said to have grown frustrated with the talks and to be pushing Mr Zelensky to move fast, while the Europeans are advising caution and patience.
A Ukrainian official said the US offer worsened for Kyiv after Mr Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a five-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin last week in the Kremlin.
The official told Axios that Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner seemed to want a clear “yes” from Mr Zelensky when they discussed the plan with him in a two-hour call on Saturday.
”It felt like the US was trying to sell us in different ways the Russian desire to take the whole of Donbas and that the Americans wanted Zelensky to accept all of it in the phone call,” the Ukrainian official said.
The terms also became harsher on territory and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after the Moscow meeting, the official said.
Mr Zelensky told reporters on Monday that he would not give up land. “We have no right to under the law – under the law of Ukraine, under our constitution, or under international law, to be honest. And we also have no moral right.”
“That is what we are fighting for”, he added.
Pope calls for peace
Pope Leo recently called for peace during a visit to Turkey, telling reporters aboard the flight from Rome: “We hope to ... announce, transmit, proclaim how important peace is throughout the world. And to invite all people to come together, to search for greater unity, greater harmony.”
Ms Meloni has pledged solidarity with Ukraine but appears to be cautious about upsetting the Trump administration with full support, and has left the UK, France and Germany to lead Europe’s peace efforts.
Mr Zelensky met the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in Downing Street on Monday - Wiktor Symanowicz/Future via Getty
Italy was not one of the seven signatories urging the EU to push ahead with a plan to use frozen Russian assets as money to loan Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, Mr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, want US security guarantees to help deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again in the future.
As peace talks continue, the war shows no sign of slowing down, with Russia downing 121 Ukrainian drones including 22 over Crimea on Monday night, according to the Kremlin.
Russian drones also attacked the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy late on Monday in the second significant strike on the city in 24 hours, triggering a power outage, according to the regional governor.
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